Brokelyn

A smart phone helps you find free condoms, serious discounts and even the details on the nearest happy hour. Free apps are super great, right? But as a fellow money conservationist, you probably noticed the quality of many free apps available lately has been way down (here’s looking at you, Talking Tom Cat). They crash, or are a limited “lite” version, or just have horrible graphics. With more than 400,000 apps available from iTunes, the free little gems are easy to overlook. To separate the great apps from the cr-apps (I mean, seriously), Brokelyn waded through the iTunes bargain bin and compiled a list of useful ones you might’ve missed that will help you save money and time in Brooklyn, more so than a free sex positions game, at least. Read the rest of this entry »

The author sets out on his girlfriend's lady bike. Photo by ST Tonio.

My girlfriend’s bike is a piece of crap. It’s heavy and slow, and the front brakes rub against the front wheel, which makes it even slower, and seemingly heavier. The gears don’t shift, and the brakes are unreliable. She really needs a new bike, but neither of us is going to buy one any time soon.

The trouble is, repairs to older bikes can add up quickly, and you can effectively total your bike just by getting it tuned up. This model was a hand-me-down from her mother’s college days (!), so I wasn’t about to spend a bundle on it.

So, my plan—okay, my freaking miserable Brokelyn assignment—was to find out how little I could spend to make the bike more road-worthy. The miserable part: riding this beast to eight different bike shops in four different neighborhoods to get the answer. Read the rest of this entry »